Kirstin McKenzie

During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans along with other minority groups were discriminated against in all aspects of live.

Although blacks faced discrimination in multiple facets of their lives, the government stepped up to improve their rights in the form of voting and employment.

Another major way that America tried to close the racial gap was through reforming the busing system.

In 1950, the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) ruled that blacks could sit wherever they wanted on the bus on interstate buses.

A supreme court ruling in 1960, declared segregation in interstate bus and railroad stations unconstitutional.

The bill aimed to ensure that every African American had the right to vote.

It also called for a new division within the federal Justice Department to monitor civil rights abuses and to keep an eye on race relations.

Recognized the brutal denial to vote of the African Americans especially in the South as well as Latinos in the Southwest.

Passed in 1965

Diversified voting

Enacted in 1964Ended poll taxes which kept African

Americans who could not afford them from voting.

Gave all U.S. citizens the right to vote.

Lyndon Johnson noted that: "There can be no Lyndon Johnson noted that: "There can be no one too poor to vote."one too poor to vote."

This act attempted to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to put the law into action.

President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered all executive agencies to require federal contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

Affirmative action was a way to compensate for past discrimination

After the Civil War and Reconstruction the country longed for the country to reunite.

As the “second” Civil Rights movement came about the white advocates of equality began to realize how unfairly minorities groups were being treated.

The various Acts passed and the amendment to the United States Constitution was the government’s way of recognizing that all people are equal and deserve equal rights.

 

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http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/intro.htm

 

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The 24th Amendment Ended the Poll Tax January 23, 1964 . (n.d.). America's Story. Retrieved April 27, 2011, from The Library of Congress website: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_polltax_2.html

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Human Rights website: http://www.civilrights.org/voting-rights/vra/